Heroclix: X-Men Danger Room Set

The girls and I tried out Heroclix for the first time yesterday; we're just playing around at this point, trying to work out the rules, but so far we like it. We got the X-Men Danger Room set because the girls like the X-Men (it comes with Cyclops, Colossus, Beast, Storm, Archangel, and Jean Grey). We played a couple of quick games, each girl won once, so all was well.

A couple of things right off the bat:

First, the map is too big for the card table, which means that it's going to have to be a sit-on-the-floor game. (Note to self: it might be fun for the girls to make their own maps at some point.)

Second, the little numbers on the dial are awfully hard for these 40+ eyes to read. Way to make a person feel old!

Still, not too much to complain about at this point.

The twelve-year-old loves the game. It's absolutely playable for a twelve-year-old. It's not quite so easy for the eight-year-old, although I'm sure when she's learned what the symbols on the base mean she'll have an easier time of it. For now I think we'll have to ground the flying characters temporarily--making them "hover" instead of "soar"--because that seems to be the main trouble area for her (that a soaring figure is right next to a grounded figure and yet isn't). And we haven't introduced the various cards into the game yet.

It should also be more fun for them once we have more figures.

Although...I have pretty much no experience with war games or miniature games. Tried some RPGs in college but ended up not caring much for them (which surprised me, given my self-perception of mildly-to-moderately geeky, but never mind). The husband, however, has--and in his opinion the game as presented in the rules is likely to get pretty dull after a while, consisting as it does of mostly fighting with very little detail in the "scenarios."

Which I guess is true given that anyone who's playing is playing, not orchestrating a story. So, those of you who have tried this out, do folks pretty much play as recommended in the instructions or do they establish "house rules" to make it more entertaining eventually? We're good with the actual game right now because we're still learning, but I can see maybe wanting to liven things up at some point. Maybe throw in some non-player characters in unexpected places, I don't know. But if we have too many house rules, what happens when and if they get older and want to play with other folks? (Okay, not that that's all that likely but it did cross my mind).

On the other hand, there are aspects of the game (mainly the combat dial on the base) that make it almost ideal for kids to play--no consulting tables, no taking notes, and the math involved seems to be well within the grasp of the eight-year-old. They both take an unwarranted glee in defeating mom (which isn't hard, I'll grant) in battle. And they enjoy personalizing it a bit because they know the characters.

So yeah, right now we're good with this. Mainly it's something we can do together that doesn't bore mom to tears. (Sorry but I played more than enough Monopoly and Clue when I was a kid to want to do much of it now.)